Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 23, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A6 A 6 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2013 MANITOBA winnipegfreepress. com 204- 697- 1400 1400 McPHILLIPS WINNIPEG MB SAVE TIME • SHOP ON- LINE www. jimgauthierchevy. com www. jimgauthierchev. com * All prices are plus freight, taxes, fee’s, boxliner and boxrails. Factory orders or locates may be required. See dealer for details. THE GAUTHIER AUTO GROUP IS PROUD TO BE THE # 1 VOLUME DEALER IN WPG!! General Motors wants to Liquidate 500 New cars, trucks & SUV’s by July 31 st , so they chose Winnipeg’s largest GM dealership to do it at. 0 % Financing on almost everything New Car payments as low as $ 24 / wk Discounts over $ 16,500 Jim Gauthier Chevrolet’s Air Conditioned 55 Car Showroom wa s the only choice when it came to where to have this sale with prices so low it wouldn’t be fair to print them! MANITOBA’S LARGEST SALE EVER! Loyalty & Conquest Credits up to $ 1500 Leases as low as $ 99 / mth Sale Dates: July 23rd through July 31st RAIN or SHINE! Everyone can see every ve hicle we have to offer inside 0 % Lease Rates Absolutely no reasonable offers will be refused THE last time Jason Stein was in court, he vowed never to touch drugs again and become a role model for young people. But eight years later, he was back in court, alleged to have committed a string of store thefts and robberies to feed a drug habit. Stein, 41, was given bail Monday on condition he remain at a local Christian- faith drug- treatment program. “ We know ( Stein) made some mistakes but this is somebody who wants some consideration,” Steve Paulson, executive director of Teen Challenge, told court on behalf of Stein. Stein broke down in tears as Paulson pleaded for the court to release him into the rigid Teen Challenge program until his matters can be dealt with at a trial. “ There really is a good person there,” Paulson said. Stein was arrested last month after it’s alleged he was involved in a series of crimes between February 2012 and June 2013, involving thefts from drugstores, grocery stores and several electronic stores where expensive mobile phones were stolen. An alleged incident in April had Stein and a co- accused loading up a grocery cart at a Superstore with flatscreen TVs and walking out. Then, it’s alleged Stein went back in a few minutes later and carried out a $ 900 flatscreen TV. Crown prosecutor Eric Hachinski opposed Stein’s release, arguing he had been picked up and released four times during that crime spree and had repeatedly broken terms of his release. Defence counsel Steven Keesic told court Stein was able to stay drug- free and out of trouble from 2004 to 2012, because of his involvement with Teen Challenge, but he slipped because of his addictions. Stein’s drug problems originated when he was shot and nearly killed during a dispute over ownership of a snowmobile in May 2000. He required 14 surgeries. His arm was permanently disfigured and he struggled with severe physical and emotional pain. That led to a string of 24 cocainefuelled robberies in 2003 that brought him to court in April 2005. He got a one- year sentence after telling the court that while awaiting trial in the Teen Challenge program, he had found Jesus, had beaten his drug habit and was a changed man. “ I made the choice to never touch drugs again,” Stein told the court in April 2005. “ I made the decision to accept Christ in my life. “ I didn’t do this for the courts. I did this because I wasn’t proud of who I was.” After serving his one- year sentence, Stein returned to work at Teen Challenge but left the program in 2009. Keesic described Teen Challenge as operating a strict program, with a 24- hour curfew, security cameras and alarms and a record of reporting individuals who breached conditions. Provincial court Judge Tim Killeen said the Crown had a strong case, with security- video surveillance or witness identifications for all the crimes Stein is alleged to have committed. aldo. santin@ freepress. mb. ca Allegations counter vow of becoming role model By Aldo Santin O BSERVERS might assume there’s been a happy ending to the Bell of Batoche. During a ceremony on Saturday, the icon of Métis pride was returned to the bullet- riddled Saskatchewan church from which soldiers stole it a century ago. But instead of a blessed homecoming, the bell’s return has sparked a warning that the public has been duped with a fabricated story about the bell’s history. According to news accounts last weekend, it was BillyJo Delaronde, a Métis man and former First Nations Manitoba chief, who stole the bell from an Ontario legion 23 years ago. Thousands heard his story at the church in Batoche, Sask., where the faithful gathered for their first glimpse of the bell as it was returned to the Catholic Diocese of Prince Albert on Saturday. Now, two Manitoba Métis men are stepping forward to dispute Delaronde’s account. In 2005, it was Gary Floyd Guiboche who broke the conspirators’ silence and admitted in the media he and another accomplice stole the bell. That accomplice was Delaronde, he said. “ But BillyJo’s story is not the way it unfolded,” Guiboche insisted in a lengthy phone interview from Stony Mountain Penitentiary on Monday. Guiboche was a free man when the bell disappeared in 1991. But since 1991, he’s been serving a life sentence for the second- degree murder conviction of his common- law wife. Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand corroborated Guiboche’s account. He said Delaronde “ screwed” Guiboche and then Delaronde betrayed the Métis people by making a deal to return the bell to the church. He’ll never forgive him for that, Chartrand said. Delaronde couldn’t be reached for comment Monday on the dissent his account sparked among Métis. Guiboche recounted a story where he and Delaronde drove to Ontario to get the bell 23 years ago. In 1885, federal troops put down the Northwest Rebellion, crushed Louis Riel’s dreams of a Métis nation and seized the bell as a trophy of war. It was brought east and ended up in the Royal Canadian Legion in Millbrook Ont. That was their destination. They had a crowbar and a 10- tonne jack rented from a tool shop in Winnipeg. At the back door, Delaronde fumbled with the crowbar and Guiboche told him: “ ‘ Give me that.’ I took it and I popped it open.” They were inside. “ We went to front ( of the legion) and that bell was sitting there.” “ We got to the bell, got the jack up. I kept pumping that 10- tonne jack and we pried the bars open. “ I took out the bell. We saw some other traditional stuff and we looked at each other and took that, too. There was no alarm system, just wires set up, but it was a fake system.” The traditional items turned out to be military medals arranged around the bell. They stuffed the lot into an Adidas bag and, struggling under the weight, went outside. Driving Delaronde’s Jeep Cherokee, they headed west until the Jeep engine gave out in Thunder Bay. Theybrokedownacrossthehighway from a Canadian Tire store, but mechanics couldn’t help them that day, and rather than waiting, they called a cab to the nearest Grey Goose bus stop at a roadside restaurant. They scarfed down a hurried breakfast, loaded the Adidas bag in cargo and boarded the bus for Winnipeg. “ An eagle flew with us the whole way over the bus to Manitoba and then it left,” said Guiboche. That’s a far different account from the one Delaronde gave on Saturday. In 1991, the bell had been stolen from the Millbrook Legion in a mysterious heist and hidden from public view until last weekend. After that, stories get tangled. Delaronde declared he and four Métis accomplices drove to Millbrook from Manitoba on a “ gentleman’s dare” determined to get the bell back, calling it “ Métis Mission Impossible.” While some of the men created a distraction by spilling a pouch of tobacco, others made off with the bell, he said. The whereabouts of the bell and the details of that long ago heist have been an open secret among Métis on the Prairies. Many didn’t believe Delaronde’s story and they don’t like where the bell is headed now, Chartrand said. The bell is reported to be en route to Winnipeg where it’s expected to be kept temporarily in the Saint- Boniface Museum. The worst is yet to come, said Chartrand. Word is the bell will be exhibited at various occasions, including socials and weddings. That’s wrong, Chartrand said. “ They commercializing the thing. It’s unbelievable. It’s like taking Riel’s headstone and going around with it... The bell belongs in Batoche. It’s caused a stir in the Métis community and they are going to figure out how to get the bell back.” alexandra. paul@ freepress. mb. ca Story of historic Bell of Batoche’s seizure disputed By Alexandra Paul LIAM RICHARDS / THE CANADIAN PRESS BillyJo Delaronde with the Bell Of Batoche in Batoche, Sask., on Saturday. A_ 06_ Jul- 23- 13_ FP_ 01. indd A6 7/ 22/ 13 10: 02: 17 PM ;